Trump calls for 'retribution' after being skewered on US TV show
US President bashes TV show after actor Alec Baldwin mocks his declaration of national emergency
NEW YORK The hit American skit show Saturday Night Live has often made fun of political figures, including former US president Barack Obama and one-time Democratic presidential nominee Hilary Clinton.
But the show seems to take particular delight in skewering current president Donald Trump.
And when Mr Trump declared a national emergency to build his wall on the US-Mexican border, it unleashed its most powerful weapon to bring him down - actor Alec Baldwin.
He is renowned for his hilarious over-the-top portrayal of Mr Trump.
Wearing a blond wig and exaggerating Mr Trump's characteristic pout and speaking style, he opened the show on Saturday and showed no mercy.
"We need wall. We have a tremendous amount of drugs coming in through the southern border, or the 'brown line' as many people have asked me not to call it," said Baldwin.
"You all see why I gotta fake this emergency, right? I have to because I want to. It's really simple. We have a problem. Drugs are coming into this country through no wall.
"Wall works, wall makes safe. You don't have to be smart to understand that - in fact it's even easier to understand if you're not that smart."
Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on which side of the divide you stand on, Mr Trump saw the show.
Things quickly moved from the humorous to the horrific as Mr Trump let loose a volley of barbs on twitter.
"Nothing funny about tired Saturday Night Live on Fake News NBC! Question is, how do the Networks get away with these total Republican hit jobs without retribution?
"Likewise for many other shows? Very unfair and should be looked into. This is the real Collusion! THE RIGGED AND CORRUPT MEDIA IS THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE," he tweeted.
Mr Trump has reacted to the show before - this was the seventh tweet he sent since 2015, reported Variety.
But this response seemed to strike a nerve.
On Sunday, Baldwin tweeted: "I wonder if a sitting President exhorting his followers that my role in a TV comedy qualifies me as an enemy of the people constitutes a threat to my safety and that of my family?"
Mr Peter Baker of The New York Times tweeted that "no other president in decades publicly threatened 'retribution' against a television network because it satirised him", CNN reported
Mr Trump's talk of "retribution" drew criticism, with lawmakers and journalists suggesting the threats violated core democratic principles, The Guardian reported.
Democrat Congressman Ted Lieu tweeted: "One thing that makes America great is that people can laugh at you without retribution."
Some commentators pointed to violence directed towards the news media in recent months like the attack on the BBC cameraman at a Trump rally and the man who mailed pipe bombs to CNN and several Trump critics.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer demonstrated another way for a politician to respond to an impersonator, CNN reported.
Weekend Update showed Mr Schumer - played by actor Alex Moffat - gloating over the recent Budget deal.
The senator then tweeted a link to the segment - which had Moffat holding up a smartphone - and said: "Good impersonation, SNL. But got one thing wrong. I use a flip phone!"
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